At one point in Monday night’s close contest between the Knicks and the Mavericks, J.R. Smith was apparently tired of seeing Vince Carter rain in shot after shot from three-point distance, and was willing to try anything to distract him.

All by itself, Smith’s gesture would have seemed playful and as nothing more than an attempt to distract an opponent’s hot shooting. But with his history of shoelace untying that the league deemed unsportsmanlike, it’s a little bit of a bigger issue.

But Carter isn’t going to be the one to treat it that way, and the veteran took it in stride as being nothing more than good fun between two competitors.

Vince Carter was a little surprised when New York’s J.R. Smith tugged at Carter’s headband and pulled it over his ear.

Surprised, but not upset about it. …

“It didn’t bother me,” Carter said after the Mavericks’ shootaround. “I hear everybody making a big deal about it, but he didn’t pull it over my eyes where I couldn’t see or play the game, so it wasn’t a big deal. But I know because it’s him, it’s an issue. He didn’t want me to make any more shots. It was just funny to me.”

Again, this is only an issue due to Smith’s past behavior, and because the league warned him and then fined him for participating in some similar nonsense.

In Dallas’ win over the Knicks, Carter led the Mavericks in scoring with 23 points in 26 minutes off the bench, and hit 7-of-12 from three-point distance. Clearly, whatever Smith did outside of the normal course of the game had zero effect on Carter’s performance.